Slidable side jaw wrench



June 30; 1953 w. A. BARNES 2,643,569

' SLIDABLE SIDE JAW WRENCH Filed May 3,- 1950 INVENTOR.

//7 WILL/AM A. BARNES Patented June 30, 1953 SLIDABLE SIDE JAW WRENCH William A. Barnes, Utica, N. Y., assignor to Utica Drop Forge & Tool Corporation, a corporation of New York Application May 3, 1950, Serial No. 159,760

2 Claims. 1

This invention relates in general to wrench construction, and relates more specifically to wrench construction wherein a movable jaw is adjusted relative to a stationary jaw by a rotary worm gear.

An object of this invention is to produce an adjustable wrench constructionhaving a movable jaw of superior strength.

Another object of this invention is to produce an adjustable wrench composed largely of stampings.

Other objects and a fuller understanding of this invention may be had by referring to the following description and claims, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, in which:

Figure 1 is a plan view of a wrench incorporating the features of this invention;

Figure 2 is an edge view of the head area only;

Figure 3 is a section along line 3-3 of Figure 1;

Figure 4 is a plan View of a modified form of the invention;

Figure 5 is an edge view of the head area only of Figure 4;

Figure 6 is a section along line 6-6 of Figure 4;

Figure '7 is an illustration of the head area only of the wrench body without the jaw and adjustment mechanism; and

Figure 8 is a plan view of the knurl adjustment worm gear used with the wrenches illustrated.

With reference to the drawing the preferred embodiment of the invention is illustrated as a wrench made principally from starnpings. It is to be understoodrhowever, that features of this invention may also be carried out in forged wrenches. Figure 1 of the drawing illustrates a wrench body i made from a stamping of rolled alloy steel. The wrench body II! has a stationary jaw portion I I. A movable jaw I2 is mounted on the wrench body III for adjustable movement with respect to the stationary jaw II.

The wrench body Ill, when made by the preferred method of this invention, namely, from an alloy steel stamping, is blanked in the general shape of the finished wrench body. Thereafter, cold upset forging methods are employed to produce a jaw guide rail I extending at an angle with respect to the stationary jaw I I. Of course, the preferable angle for the rail I5 is a 90 angle with respect to the work face of the stationary jaw II, but is not limited thereto. It has been found that the jaw guide rail I5 can be forged cold by the upset principle of forging, and will thereby produce shoulder portions Id of superior toughness and strength without the necessity and expense of heating the wrench body blank before m forging. The face of the stationary jaw II may also be widened by cold upset forging.

In Figures 1-3 the guide rail I5 is illustrated with a divided shoulder portion I6. In Figures 4-6 a modification of the rail construction is indicated by the reference character II5 having a single shoulder portion I It. After the cold upset forging the shoulder portions It or IIE are finished by suitable machine operations as understood by those skilled in the art.

, The movable jaw I2, or the corresponding jaw I I2 in Figure 4 is formed in rough and then slotted to provide a longitudinal slot II to match the guide rail id, or a slot III to match the guide rail I I5. In either event, the slot is provided with side walls having suitable interfitting surfaces which need not be extremely snug, but only require machining to moderately close tolerances.

When the illustrated construction was first contemplated it was expected that the provision of a movable jaw having a longitudinal slot with side walls to saddle upon a guide rail would result in increased strength. This increased strength was expected from tougher and more expensive steels that became economically feasible because of the inexpensive stamping procedure of producing the wrench. However, upon testing the wrench for breakdown strength after it was actually constructed, it was found that the strength was far superior to that expected, and actually was about twice the strength of conventional forged wrenches in which the wrench body is slotted and the movable jaw is provided with an internal slide rail. The greater strength may be a result of the slope of the shoulder surface, or

jaw-retainer surfaces between the'actual shoulder and the wrench body proper. In the illustrated embodiment these surfaces are flat planes, and are positioned at an angle of or less with respect to the wrench body. There is little or no tendency to spread the side walls defining the slot I! in the movable jaw. The corner area between the shoulders and wrench body could be rounded, if desired, to prevent the possibility of stress risers, and the surfaces in such event are basically at the sharp angle, and so may aid in adding strength characteristics.

The wrench body Ill is provided with an opening 20 therethrough as best illustrated in Figure '7 of the drawings. A knurl worm drive gear 22, illustrated in Figure 8, is provided with axle bosses 23 on the end thereof. The gear 22 is normally referred to by the trade simply as a knurl. Although axle bosses 23 have been chosen for illustration, of course it is understood that an axle pin could be extended axially through the knurl rivet hole 2 l 22 for the same purpose. It is conventional practice to drill from the outside edge of the wrench body through the side of the opening 29 and allow the drill to bridge across the opening 20 and produce a second and aligned opening on the opposite side of the opening. hole from the side of the wrench body to the opening is threaded and a long pin can be held as an axle extending across the opening. According to this invention, the axle bosses 23 are a part of the knurl 22. The opening 20 is provided with two notches 24 and the knurl 22 is positioned in the opening 20 with the bosses 23 thereof extending into the notches 24. Thereafter two cover plates 25 are placed over the notches 25 and are held in position by a rivet 26 passin through a A hole 2| can be readily stamped through the wrench body It in much less time than required to drill the axle hole described as being used in conventional practice.

Besides the strength advantage which has been found, it will readily be seen that a wrench made as taught by this invention will be considerably cheaper than by conventional forgings with slotted guide grooves in the wrench body. Slotting and forming the slots I! and H7 is considerably cheaper to perform in the small jaw members l2 and H2 because of the fact that the slot is continuous across the entire bottom of the movable jaw rather than having one portion tunneling through the metal body as accomplished in prior practice. Furthermore, if spoilage results from the slotting operation, the small movable jaw part is far less expensive to discard than the entire wrench body portion. Further, it will readily be understood that stampings are less expensive to produce than forgings.

Although the invention has been described in its preferred form with a certain degree of particularity, it is understood that the present disclosure of the preferred form has been made only by way of example and that numerous changes in the details of construction and the combination and arrangement of parts may be restored to without departing from the spirit and the scope of the invention as hereinafter claimed.

What is claimed is:

1. The method of making a slidable side jaw wrench, comprising the steps of, forming a metal blank having a handle, a stationary jaw, and a jaw rail portion, thereafter forging said jaw rail portion into jaw guide rail surfaces at substantially a 90 angle with respect to said stationary jaw, finishing said rail surfaces into smooth lateral shoulder rails, separately preparing a Thereafter the drill gear pinion through said handle of the wrench body at a position to underlay said rack teeth of the movable jaw, placing said jaw on said rail,

. placing said worm gear pinion in said stamped opening, and clamping said worm gear pinion in said opening by plates on each side of the handle covering the area of the said axle bosses.

2. The method of making a slidable side jaw wrench, comprising the steps of, forming a metal blank having a handle, a stationary jaw, and a jaw rail portion, thereafter forging said jaw rail portion into jaw guide rail surfaces at substantially a 90 angle with respect to said stationary jaw, finishing said rail surfaces into smooth lateral shoulder rails, separately preparing a movable jaw blank, broaching a slot through said movable jaw having a cross-section to pass in interfitting relationship upon said rail surfaces and be reciprocably guided thereby, providing rack teeth along the edges of said slot, providing a worm gear pinion with teeth to drive said rack teeth, stampin an opening shaped substantially in the shape of said worm gear pinion through said handle of the wrench body at a position to underlay said rack teeth of the movable jaw, placing said jaw on said rail, placing said worm gear pinion in said stamped opening, and clamping said worm gear pinion in said opening.

WILLIAM A. BARNES.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 1,148,410 Smith et al July 27, 1915 1,160,494 Bush Nov. 16, 1915 1,378,209 Bergman May 17, 1921 1,379,536 Davies May 24, 1921 1,506,362 Carman Aug. 26, 1924 1,730,279 Laterza Oct. 1, 1929 1,861,060 Maguire 1- May 31, 1932 1,936,812 Welling Nov. 28, 1933 2,524,376 Clark Oct. 3, 1950 

